


Postscript

by forestofbabel



Series: Ley Lines [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Multiverse, Parallel Universes, about section, explained
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-02-28 01:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13260606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestofbabel/pseuds/forestofbabel
Summary: not!fic story information - companion piece toIf the ley lines you should followandwhere the Double Walker dwells





	1. How did the parallel universes really work

_How did the parallel universes_ really  _work?_

Just like Stiles figured out in the end.

My concept is that not every crossroads makes a new timeline. What does cause a new timeline then? Someone’s death. 

The point in time where Scott either died or turned into a werewolf created a new timeline.  The two timelines explored in Ley Lines & Double Walkers are the exact same timeline up until the recent split of Stiles’s death via car crash.

Now, just in canon, there’s a hundred different possible deaths that could have branched out into hundreds of different universes.  Don’t think about it too hard, it’ll make your brain hurt.  Trust me.  It’s easiest to only really focus on the two stories presented to you.

_Okay, but what about all the splits of the same Stiles?_

In theory, and I get to say that because it’s all my make believe, when Stiles was bit by the fey and he blasted it with magic, one of two things could have happened: Stiles gets transported through the ley lines to some unknown location OR Stiles dies.

Stiles can’t go to fairy land, as the initial intent of the fey, because I said so. The split in timelines ONLY comes from the possibility of Stiles’s death, so it only could have split if Stiles did drunk magic, and that always prevents him from going to fairy realm.  Because I said so.

Now, what about the two options?  The death _technically_ happened in the ley lines, and not in reality, I guess, is a way to put it.

We’re then presented with an unlimited number of possibilities where Stiles could have ended up.  But, as I stated in both fics, the magic has a mind of its own.  It _knows_ what it’s doing.  So, the places Stiles ended up were only places he was needed, as the prophetic piece of made up literature states.  _If the ley lines you should follow…_ and all that. 

The ley lines took him to every universe that need him to fix things.  However, since Stiles’s timeline split happened in the ley lines rather than in Earth1, then that singular world is where all of those different Stiles’s originate from, rather than each having their own world to come back to.

Each Stiles in each new universe is tethered to their original universe.  But, we can’t create another doppelgänger situation, can we.  I won’t do it.  Happy endings only people!

So, from there, it goes like this.  StilesA comes back to Earth1.  He putters around for a while, trying to fit in.  He goes to Derek, looking for a book.  He travels the world, finding a solution.  He leaves back to Earth2.  StilesB comes back to Earth1, having taken longer to “fix things” and leave the timeline he just traveled to.  Because Deaton already knows all the things needed to send StilesB through the ley lines, it takes about half the time for him to leave.  Some Stiles want to leave right away, relieved to find out it’s all been figured out before them.  Some are reluctant and want to try and stay, but ultimately, like StilesA, realize they need to go back. 

And then our boy from _Double Walkers_ comes home.  He’s the only one that went to a timeline with another him.  How do I know that?  Because I’m the author and I say so.  The nemeton dying is fixed in every other universe that Stiles was alive for, one way or another. 

By the time StilesC comes back, all the other Stiles’s had come and gone.  In fact, it had even been a few _years_ since a different Stiles returned to Earth1.  He’s the last to come home, because he’s the one to stay.  He took the burden of a shortened lifespan onto himself in his journey, not being able to fully get rid of the double walker curse.  However, as stated, the magic took from the middle of his life.  He showed up missing seven years and no longer had to worry about a traumatic end.

A diagram that may or may not make things make sense....

Every Derek got his Stiles.  They love each other.  The end.


	2. What other universes are there?

_What other universes are there?_

All the universes that Stiles was sent to were ones that the nemeton was killing the town because it hadn’t been woken up yet.

In the original source canon, the first bit of blood to start to awaken the nemeton is from Paige. 

There’s the timeline where Ennis didn’t lose a packmate, meaning he wasn’t desperate to bite a new member.

There’s the timeline where Paige turns instead of dies.

If Paige never becomes a sacrifice, then there’s not enough energy to keep Jennifer alive when Kali tries to kill her and therefore can’t come back later to make the five-fold knot.

There’s timelines where the Hale Fire didn’t kill the whole family, or any of the family, and it meant they were able to take care of the Alpha Pack at its inception, defeating Jennifer’s need for more power and vengeance.  Some of those timelines, Kali may have never even tried to kill her.

But, of course, the other common thread to all the timelines that needed Stiles’s help, was that Stiles wasn’t there. 

In every other possibility where Stiles was alive, it shifted events enough that the nemeton was woken up, either peacefully or darkly, but woken all the same.

Thinking of all the ways Stiles could have died is painful, but his death is the only thing that would have left space in reality for Stiles1 to fill. 

There are plenty of moments in canon from season 1 – season 3a where Stiles could have died, creating a new timeline.  But I think, if I ever wrote a new version of this story (I won’t, it’s done, but if I did) it would be one where Stiles died before any of the supernatural stuff happened. 

Maybe one where Paige was alive, and the Hales were alive, and Scott never got bit because there was no dead body in the woods, and Stiles died when he was a kid because of something he survived in canon.  Maybe something involving his mom.  My head’s going into dark places and since I don’t plan on ever writing this story, I’m going to stop there.

The point of the matter is, it doesn’t matter.  There are so many possibilities.  I go down rabbit holes of what ifs all the time in my life.  So many little changes would have astronomical differences in how the world unfolds.  In reality, you can’t go back, and you can’t travel through the multiverse, and it’s boring but you have to work with what you’ve got _before_ you can look back and regret not doing something.

Sorry, got all preachy and philosophical on you.  Back to fiction, where life is better:

The _real_ point of the matter is, as much as I love tracing lynch pins of stories to see how everything would unravel differently, I can’t come up with every possibility.  There are simply too many.  I hope you enjoyed the two I gave to you in this series.

HOWEVER

If you want to write a fan fiction based off any of these possible universes, go ahead.  I’d love to read it. 

**Author's Note:**

> let me know if you have any other bits of confusion and I'll tackle on a third chapter for Q&As :)


End file.
